


Plans

by benicemurphy



Category: Banana Fish (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, F/M, M/M, Melancholy, Post-Canon, Post-Side Story: Garden of Light, Weddings, What-If
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-10
Updated: 2020-03-10
Packaged: 2021-03-01 05:20:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23090029
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/benicemurphy/pseuds/benicemurphy
Summary: Eiji attends Sing and Akira’s wedding and struggles with visions of his own.
Relationships: Ash Lynx/Okumura Eiji, Ibe Akira/Sing Soo-Ling
Comments: 14
Kudos: 60





	Plans

It’s a gorgeous day, perfect for a wedding.

Sing has been a nervous wreck all week. It’s been Eiji’s job to keep him calm and help him make it to the altar.

Akira is an angel walking down the aisle to her beloved. Eiji remembers when they met. He remembers a younger, more hot-tempered version of the woman standing before him now, though that fire still burns brightly within her. He remembers Sing, small and indignant and far less self-assured than he is now.

He tries not to remember too often, but also as often as possible.

This day is for Sing and Akira. He tells himself so repeatedly.

And yet, it’s hard not to picture himself somewhere else.

Japan, maybe. In the spring. A gentle breeze rustling the trees, sakura petals dancing around them both, framing the beautiful face that still haunts his dreams...

Ash would have loved Japan.

Maybe, just this once, he can let himself imagine.

They would have had a small, quiet ceremony — just the two of them, Ibe, his mother and sister, Max — even Shorter and Griffin. They’d stand on the bank of a river framed on both sides by sakura trees at sunrise. (Ash was always softest at sunrise.) Eiji would stand facing the sun just to watch the way it framed Ash like a halo.

Everyone always said he couldn’t be tamed, but Eiji never wanted to tame him; he only wanted to share his world.

He imagines the words Ash might have said to him, quietly, so that only their closest friends and family could hear. _Stay with me, forever this time_ , maybe. Or the more traditional _‘til death do us part_ — though that one is too bittersweet. He’s not sure he likes it, even in his daydreams, though he’s sure he’d feel differently hearing the words spoken in Ash’s voice.

In private, later, maybe he’d say _I love you_. Even still, the fact that he never said it, not in those words, is Eiji’s biggest regret, second only to leaving New York at all.

In his fantasy, he tells Ash every day. He tells him in every language he knows how. He shows him that he’s there for him, always, in every way a partner should be, in any way Ash wants or needs him.

After the riverside ceremony, there’d be a short celebration — it wouldn’t matter where — for them to bask in the glow of finally being together and free with the people who matter most. Eiji would pick petals out of Ash’s wind-mussed hair, and Ash would take his hand and kiss his knuckles each time before letting go.

In the present reality, Sing and Akira recite their well-rehearsed vows. They’re beautiful, but Eiji forgets them as soon as he hears them. When they lean in for the kiss, he lowers his gaze.

Maybe, instead of Japan, they could have made a home on Cape Cod. They could have built a house from the ground up, exactly the way they’d like it. They could have had a library that took up the entire second floor, just for Ash’s books. They could have put in a dark room and decorated their home in photographs of the ocean and their friends and Ash’s carefree laugh. They wouldn’t even have to get married; Eiji would have been happy with anything at all, so long as Ash was by his side.

They could have gotten a cat or two, or three if Ash wanted three. They could have bought a large plot of land and had as many animals as they wanted.

And if they did decide to get married, a wedding on the beach. The whole gang would be there, and Jessica and Michael and Charlie, too. They’d have an open bar and dance on the beach until the sun came up, and Eiji would pull Ash away to steal a kiss or six.

The guests cheer as the music starts up again, and Eiji is reminded that he has a job to do today. There’s no time to dwell on things that can never happen.

This day is for Sing and Akira.


End file.
